Why was Sir Geoff not at Upton Park as West Ham remembered Moore on 20th anniversary of legend's death?

Conspicuous by his absence this week
from West Ham’s tribute to mark the 20th anniversary of Bobby Moore’s
death was Sir Geoff Hurst.

He was one of three Hammers players in
England’s World Cup-winning side, along with Martin Peters and captain
Moore.

Remembered: West Ham paid tribute to Bobby Moore earlier this week

Top of the world: Hurst was next to Moore as he lifted the Jules Rimet trophy

Tribute: Martin Peters was at Upton Park as West Ham lost to Spurs on Monday

Peters, 69, was
at the wreath-laying ceremony before the match against Tottenham on
Monday.

Hurst, 71, sent his apologies to the club and the Moore family
from America, where he spends most of the winter.

Bird's stories given third airing as former umpire pens new book

Former Test cricket umpire Dickie Bird, whose autobiography sold more than a million copies, is bringing out yet another book to mark his 80th birthday on April 19.

Bird’s life story, published in 1998, is remarkably one of the best-selling sports books of all time across the globe. And whatever cricket anecdotes Dickie left out of My Autobiography were included in the sequel White Cap and Bails, hurriedly brought out two years later.

Now Bird and his publishers Hodder &
Stoughton are attempting to further cash in on any interest left in
Dickie’s cricket stories with 80 Not Out, even though it is 15 years
since he retired as an umpire.

The ghost writer is again Keith Lodge, the former Barnsley Chronicle sports editor, who received a flat fee of around £5,000 for the first book that made Dickie rich.

David Gill’s relentless campaigning ahead of the UEFA executive committee election in May will see him join the Wembley delegation at the rules governing body IFAB summit in Edinburgh at the weekend.

The Manchester United chief executive is also travelling with the England party to San Marino and Montenegro for World Cup qualifiers next month in the hunt for votes. Meanwhile, it will be intriguing to see how many of the IFAB delegates, including Gill and FIFA president Sepp Blatter, take up an invitation from their Scottish FA hosts to attend Hearts v Motherwell next Saturday.

There was no mention of Julian
Eccles’s troubled time at Wembley in the announcement of the former FA
spin doctor’s appointment as corporate communications chief for
international digital media company Millicom.

Eccles
was described as a former Sky communications director and special
advisor at the DCMS, despite his most recent and high-profile post being
with the FA.

He's taking the mickey

It doesn’t say much about Australia coach Mickey Arthur’s focus between the back-to-back Tests at the start of the Ashes series in July that he is speaking at a £120-a-head MCC dinner at Lord’s the night after the first Test finishes.

Promotional material boasts that Arthur, whose Aussie Test side are losing in India, will be giving his ‘insightful views on the essential ingredients of a winning team’.

Busy man: Mickey Arthur (centre) will speak at Lord's inbetween Tests

Meanwhile, MCC’s strategic report for the next 10 years — a lot of it blindingly obvious — sent to members this week is scant on detail about anything to do with the Lord’s rebuilding plan. Yet this is the key issue going forward and one that has caused turmoil at cricket’s HQ.

MCC say an update on the renovation plans, after the termination of the £400m Lord’s Vision, will be provided at the AGM in May and that it was ‘just one part’ of the club’s business.

Channel 4’s TV coverage of the Cheltenham Festival could not be more crucial after such an underwhelming start to the new terrestrial monopoly contract.

Underwhelming: Channel 4's racing coverage could do with a boost

Yet in their wisdom, neither C4 nor their horseracing production company IMG had anyone at the big Festival countdown media day at Cheltenham on Wednesday, when the weights for the handicap races were announced

C4 say their racing team were elsewhere filming material for Cheltenham.

The British Olympic Association, who have suffered a chronic sponsorship vacuum since the Games, now have two blue-chip backers in Barclays and BP close to much-needed deals.

However UK Athletics, whose hunt for a roster of sponsors to replace Aviva has been unsuccessful, are changing tack to concentrate on finding sponsorship for the London Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium in July.